All Articles Tagged "DJ Envy"

Ashanti’s new album, Braveheart, drops today, and to promote it, the singer stopped by The Breakfast Club to chat with Charlamagne, Angela Yee and DJ Envy. In their very interesting interview with her, Ashanti touched on everything, including critics who used to talk about her vocal abilities and her sideburns, what she’s learned about the industry, who she’s dating, and of course, Nelly. Here are the tidbits from the 30-minute interview that stood out:

If She’s On Good Terms With Nelly These Days:

“I will say that, there was a space where it was bad. It was really bad. Are we cool? Yeah. We’re okay.

When a man is hurt and a woman is hurt, I think men deal with hurt differently. I feel like we handle our emotions differently. There were a lot of things said and done publicly that should not have been. There was a foundation set and those things shouldn’t have happened.

We both definitely made mistakes in a lot of things. But I will say things do come full circle.”

If Nelly Is the One:

“Um, Nelly is a really good person, he has a really good heart. You know?”

If She Felt A Way About Nelly Going With Tae Heckard Soon After They Split:

“Did I feel a way? I’m very smart and I know him. I knew what the facade was.”

If She Was Dating NFL Baller DeSean Jackson:

“Um…No. We were hanging. I went to a football game. He’s real cool peoples. I can’t go to the game?”

How She Paid Bills Since Her Last Album In 2008:

“I did Broadway. I did Army Wives. I write. People forget early, I was writing for J. Lo, one of J. Lo’s biggest records ever. I wrote for Christina Milian, I wrote for a couple of pop groups. And I’ma be honest, I don’t really like to spend my own money. I know how to save.”

Dealing With Critics Who Said She Couldn’t Sing:

“When you’re hot and you’re on fire, you gotta expect that. When you’re number one and you’re killing it, it comes with the territory. You have to be strong enough. If you’re strong enough to be number one, you have to be strong enough to endure the BS.”

Dealing With Haters Who Said She Had Sideburns Back In The Day:

“I’ma keep it all the way 100. I have nice hair. I ain’t even gonna lie. When you have ‘good hair’ you’re hairy a little bit and you have sideburns [laughs]. Some people love sideburns. This is what I thought though. On TV, on film and in pictures, it looks a little different than it does in person [laughs]. So when you’re looking in the mirror, you know, you gelling them down, but on film and on camera it may look a bit different. I looked at it like, they wack, you know, for saying that. I’m a girl, that’s real feminine for you to be saying that. But then I would look and be like, damn it! [laughs]”

How She Makes Her Relationship With Her Mom-ager Work After All These Years

“We been tight before the industry. My mom and I have an amazing relationship…Our relationship is not, oh because of the music industry, it’s more that we have a relationship and not an authoritive, mother, ‘I’m telling you what to do’ relationship.”

If She Ever Felt Like Giving Up:

“It’s definitely gotten to places where I fee like, ‘this is bulls**t’. This is not how it’s supposed to be. You’re not supposed to have to put in ten times more work and get less the pay. Just conceptually understanding the game and the agendas that people have and the fact that people look at you as a commodity and not a person. Once you understand that, you don’t take things personal. It’s about adapting and understanding it.”

If She Would ‘Allow’ Nelly To Be Friends With Tae Heckard From Here On Out:

“What? Who? I don’t know what ya’ll talking about.”

Dealing With Famous Folks Trying To Holler At Her Mom:

“It’s so annoying. I swear, since I was like 7-years old. Steve Harvey? Jay Leno? It’s really bad. He [Harvey] pushed me out the way. The first time we went to LA to do an interview, he was like, ‘Heeeey, we have Ashanti! Who that? That’s her momma? Tell her momma to come over!'”

If you have 30 minutes to spare, I would recommend checking out the interview. It had quite a few funny moments, and moments where Ashanti kept it really real about the dark side of the industry. Check it out below and share your thoughts.

If you don’t already have Janelle Monae’s new album The Electric Lady, you are truly missing out. It just might be album of the year (I’m torn between it and Justin Timberlake’s 20/20 Experience), but we still have a few months left in 2013 to figure that out. To promote the new disc, the beauty actually hit up The Breakfast Club. And while the show is usually a bit much when it comes to the questions they ask their guests, the hosts were on their best behavior. Well, for the most part (DJ Envy tried to imply she was gay but her facial expression shut that down real quick). Check out what she had to say about what it’s really like to work with Diddy and if she’s on Bad Boy, having jam sessions with Prince, and why sales do matter to her.

Is She on Bad Boy? And What It’s Like Working With Diddy:

“Diddy actually is somebody I have to credit for helping me get my career off the ground. I started my own label a few years back, the Wondaland Arts Society, and Big Boi was working with us, and Puff came down and saw what we were doing and just wanted to help. He said, ‘I don’t want to be involved creatively with anything you guys got going on, I just want the world to know about you.’ So it’s a partnership. I came into the business owning my own label.

It’s a very unique position that I’m very thankful for. I was very anti-major label. I just felt that I didn’t see myself out there. I felt that if I was going to be signed directly to this big machine I would have to change my image, my music and stuff, so I felt the most important thing was getting the music to the people, unfiltered…I’ve been in the unique position to have Puff’s support and Big Boi’s support. They’re executive producing this album. I’m here because artists helped me get to this level.”

How She Became So Close With The Purple One:

“My first nationally released EP, Metropolis, came out and he listened to it. I was actually on tour with Raphael Saadiq and he had his DJ, DJ Rasheeda, she came backstage and said, ‘I have someone who wants to talk to you’ and I’m like, ‘Okay.’ So I get on the phone and this voice…I’m going to do it in my voice, he said ‘I love your voice, I love what you’re doing, I’m happy, I’m proud,’ and ‘Do you want to come over for a jam session?’ So he invited my band and I over for a jam session. We stayed up until seven in the morning just talking and playing music. He took me on tour with him, I did Madison Square Garden and the Forum in L.A.”

Charlamagne: “Did he feed you pancakes?”

“I’ve actually had pancakes. We all did, he’s a great host. But we didn’t play basketball [laughs].

But I’m just humbled and thankful. He doesn’t appear on a lot of albums so just to have his support–again, I’m here because a community of artists have supported me.”

And Why Sales Do Mean Something To Her:

“I need ya’ll support. I have not sold a million albums or 500,000 but I think this music is worth it.”

Charlamagne: “You care about that stuff?”

“I want everybody in the entire galaxy to hear this music. I don’t write music just for myself. I write it to help inspire and heal and to move people, you know what I mean? I want the world to hear about this album.”

And the world needs to quit sleeping and open their ears because she’s one of the most talented artists we have in all of music right now. Click over to the next page to watch her 20-minute interview with Charlamagne, DJ Envy and Angela Yee at Power 105.1.

What were these celebrities thinking when they made these silly comments? Did they really think the other person would laugh it off or not react. We’re sure they will think twice before they open their big mouths again or do something else outrageous.

I guess The-Dream is feeling some sort of way about Keyshia Cole’s Twitter comments about Beyoncé’s song “Bow Down,” because he went on the radio this week and basically said that musically, he can’t rock with her right now.

In an interview with The Breakfast Club (Power 105.1), singer/songwriter let it be known that her opinions were for some reason, too disrespectful to warrant him getting in the studio with the “Trust and Believe” singer in the future. When asked by DJ Envy if he takes the people he works with and their beefs seriously, and if he could do a record for Cole since all that mess happened, he had this to say:

“Right now because of what happened, I can’t. I think she would respect why I can’t. That’s my family.”

When asked again if he she came calling would he say “Bow Down” and hang up (womp), he said no and replied, “You have a grown up conversation, like ‘Yo, you talking about my family.’

Surprisingly, Cole responded via Twitter of course, and respectfully made it clear that she will be fine without his musical contributions…trust and believe that! (had to do it.)

“Dream not writing any songs for me is fine…Im on my 6th album…He’s only wrote 1 song on 1 of my albums, which I did love, God Bless”

That song, if you were wondering, was from her latest album, Woman to Woman and is called “Hey Hot.”

The-Dream definitely doesn’t have to work with people he doesn’t feel like, but it’s just weird that so many adults take the things people say about Beyoncé so much to heart when SHE doesn’t even think it’s worth it to respond. Her man doesn’t even bat an eye as far as we can tell, so I would recommend Mr. Terius Nash quit playing and take whatever checks are coming his way and write those songs, because that drama is between them. As a wise…or silly man once said, “Your name is Bennett, and you ain’t in it.”

Check out The-Dream’s interview with The Breakfast Club on the next page, and the convo starts around the five-minute mark:

Earlier today, we told you about radio host DJ Envy coming clean over the air about his relationship with “Love & Hip Hop” star Erica Mena. His confession appeared to be in response to Erica’s internet radio interview from last week, where she confessed to sleeping with the married DJ, justified it by saying he didn’t act like a “proud married man” and revealed that she would be dropping a tell-all book about the affair. Now today, in an interview that appears to be in response to Envy’s confession, the walking, talking, breathing contradiction told Vibe Vixen that Envy failed to inform her that he was married.

“DJ Envy’s definitely talking about me, but I’m one of many. I was under the assumption that he had kids but wasn’t actually married. I found out around the time that I started filming “Love & Hip Hop”. After I found out, I was still in shock because we were together for so long. I didn’t understand how he could take a vow as serious as marriage and take on a whole other relationship. It’s sad that now he’s taking all these shots saying I’m a liar and I’m pathetic, when he deceived me. It’s not fair to paint me out as a liar when he was leading a double life for many years. He’s never publicly come out with his wife until now because he’s ashamed of her. It’s no secret.”

She went on to claim that her upcoming book is not a tell-all about the DJ, but a story of her life.

“For me, I never spoke about it [the affair] because it was embarrassing as a woman. Of course, now I explain it in my book. I want to be clear: My book is not a tell-all. It’s just a book about my life and Envy is apart of my life.”

Meanwhile Envy expressed via his Twitter page that nothing is going to come between him and his wife, not even Erica’s book.

It looks like this back and forth thing between Envy and Erica may go on for awhile.

It’s difficult to believe Erica’s claim that she didn’t know Envy was married considering how unapologetic and bold she came off during last week’s interview, but then again, it wouldn’t be the first time someone lied about their marital status.

Last week, we told you that “Love & Hip Hop” star Erica Mena publicly confessed to having carried on an affair with Power 105.1’s The Breakfast Club host, DJ Envy. Mena spilled the tea regarding her homewrecking deed during an interview, where she also revealed that she would be releasing a book this April that would recount all of the nitty-gritty details about the affair. She also unapologetically revealed that she didn’t find herself to be a homewrecker because Envy was unhappily married.

During his show this morning, Envy confirmed that he did in fact have an extramarital affair with the “Love & Hip Hop” star. He also confessed that the affair came during a challenging time in his life, reports The Jasmine Brand.

“A couple of months ago, I called my wife on air and asked her for forgiveness. I told her I needed change. I had a close relationship with God and I changed. Now, my wife, has been with me over 18 years. We’ve been married 11 years. The best heart that you’ll ever know. She’s that type of person that’ll change your life.”

“It’s a difficult thing to do. Sometimes being married it makes you insecure dude. I looked like I had everything. It was scary, my wife is gorgeous. She might me somebody that’s smarter than me. It made me insecure.”

“With being insecure, with me being weak. I was so insecure and so down..I started messing with somebody that was beneath me. A bird. Evil. A liar. Somebody that was desperate and its just so pathetic. I mean I didn’t have to feed this person no feed. I didn’t have to make her feel special, because she wasn’t. So that’s what it was.”

He also made it clear that he desires to work things out with his wife, but even if the marriage doesn’t survive, his family will.

“With the help of God, this situation has made my family tighter. Like tighter. I’m honest. I had to be honest with myself. And the hardest thing I had to do was tell my wife EVERYTHING. When I say everything. She looked at me so different. To look at my family. So you guys follow me on twitter. We’re good. We’re not great. I don’t know what happens from here. Now if we remain together, as a relationship, we’ll see. But as a family, nobody’s stopping us. I just want to tell you ‘I love you. And we’ll see what God has in store for us.”

Although Envy doesn’t actually utter Erica’s name, it’s quite obvious who he is referring to. It’s also interesting to note that his wife Gia will be making her debut as the newest addition to “Real Housewives of New Jersey” this season.

Check the next page to hear a clip of Envy apologizing to his wife on the radio last month. What are your thoughts on his confession? Is he a changed man?

Since her 2012 debut on VH1’s “Love & Hip Hop”, the media world has been buzzing with gossip bits that Erica Mena had been engaged in an affair with very married Power 105.1 Breakfast Club host, DJ Envy. The troubled reality star unremorsefully confirmed the affair and admitted to only having ended it because of her relationship with co-star Rich Dollaz in an interview with I Am Super Gorge.

“I just wanna clear something up. I know that people have been calling me a homewrecker or whatever. I’m just gonna keep it real simple and say this, you can’t break a home that’s already broken. So, I mean at the end of the day, whatever happened with him and his marriage definitely has nothing to do with me… He’s been married for 18 years. He never once acted married until he found out that I was engaged. He definitely wasn’t a proud married man.”

She went on to say that anyone who’s interested in learning the dirty details of her affair with Envy can get the scoop in her new tell-all book, Underneath It All, which is scheduled to be released in April.

“I definitely think in time people will kind of get a better understanding of where I’m coming from because my book will be explaining it all. It drops in April. So you guys get to get the full-on story about me and this whole DJ Envy situation. [In the book] I give actual dates and how everything went about. You guys will also get the scoop on the fact that I kind of left that situation alone because I wanted to be with Rich.”

A delusional Erica took to her Twitter page this morning to offer fans the opportunity to select the cover art of her tell-all book.

“Help Pick The Cover To My New Book #UnderneathITAll By Me Coming This April ! @lffpublishing @michelefletcher VOTE!” she tweeted.

Source: Twitter

During the interview, she also danced around questions regarding her “pregnancy”, seemingly using the rumor as a ploy for reunion show ratings.

“Right before the reunion airs, I’ll tell you guys the full honest truth.I would rather keep people in suspense a little bit more, but you guys will be surprised at the final answer. I’m real excited.”

Surprise, surprise: Nicki Minaj is upset about someone not “supporting” her movement.

She was a guest on New York City’s Power 105 FM’s Breakfast Club morning show earlier this week and when the hosts didn’t seem completely prepared (or maybe they just didn’t care), Onika gave each of them their own personal tongue lashing. The moments were definitely a bit cringe-worthy and though you’d hope she was just playing around with them, Nicki no longer seems like the “fun” type of woman.

Fussing at DJ Envy for not having the right music:

“Why don’t you have the songs cued up though? I wanna hear ‘High School,’ I wanna hear ‘Hell Yeah,’ I wanna hear ‘I’m Legit,’ I wanna hear ‘Up in Flames.’ Y’all don’t even know these songs. You guys clearly don’t support me, neither does Clue, but that’s neither here nor there. Those are the songs that I would like y’all to play. I don’t understand why I’m coming to radio and y’all don’t even have my songs ready.[…]That’s the main focus of the kid coming to the radio. *banging her fists on the table* When the kid comes to the radio, the kid comes to hear her songs on the radio!…Ya’ll package ride stuff that got a big name on it. It’s other great records on there so let’s go.”

Angela Yee Catches It For Not Having Seen the “Freedom” video:

“How are y’all on radio, especially if you know an artist is about to come up to your show and you know, she just put out a video…what would make you not watch it?…I love you Angela because you and I have always had the best interviews. I don’t know what’s happening now that you are with these boys, but when you and I used to do interviews on your other show (Lip Service), you knew everything. Y’all either want to discuss something personal, or not discuss anything that I’m here to talk about. How do you not watch a video of an artist that’s coming on your show? Of the single?[…]It’s fake and y’all not prepared. If you’re gonna support me then you’re gonna watch stuff and prepare yourself and ask me relevant questions to what I’m promoting right now.”

In here defense, it would seem that Nicki has a point. First, all three hosts (it appears Charlemagne went unscathed during this interview) are seasoned radio hosts and should know that even if they don’t watch the video or listen to the music personally, interns and assistants should be able to relay everything that happened so the hosts wouldn’t get “caught out there.” Nicki has always come across as a person who needs to be coddled and told that the person likes her work so her annoyance should have come as no surprise. However, it isn’t always about what you say but rather, how you say it.

Perhaps Nicki hadn’t eaten breakfast and that’s what made her a little more crabby.

Check out Necole Bitchie for more excerpts, including what she had to say about American Idol, and the full video interview.

Though it hasn’t been confirmed, the head honchos at BravoTV may have finally realized that there are black people who don’t live in Atlanta. Rumor has it, the network is adding a black family to Real Housewives of New Jersey cast.

One of NYC’s very own popular DJs and his wife will be starring on Bravo’s “The Real Housewives Of New Jersey”. According to an exclusive Sydney Lace source, DJ Envy from the popular Breakfast Club morning show on Power 105.1 in NYC, will allow cameras into his life for the popular TV show.

In addition to co-hosting the Breakfast Club, he also runs his own management and production company called Blok Entertainment and he’s a MTV2 VJ for “Sucker Free Countdown”. There’s not much information out there about his wife Gia Casey but, last year, Gia was photographed seated at a table with some RHONJ castmembers at the Children’s Aid and Family Services’ annual Spring Gala, Love is All You Need.

DJ Envy (born RaaShaun Casey) and his wife are an odd choice for that show because all of the RHONJ castmembers are related by blood or marriage. Caroline Manzo and Jacqueline Laurita are related. Teresa Guidice, Melissa Gorga and Kathy Wakile are related and Teresa’s daughter’s godmother is Caroline’s sister (and former RHONJ castmember Dina Manzo). So where does that leave DJ Envy and Casey? It’s possible that Bravo wants to add randoms to the cast because Teresa isn’t talking to any of the current castmembers.

The Real Housewives of New Jersey castmembers are all married, so that’s a plus for DJ Eny and Casey considering reality shows have a way of destroying marriages. In fact, with the major exception of New Jersey, the divorce rate of Real Housewives is especially high. If this couple does decide to go on the show, let’s hope they aren’t headed to divorce court as a result.

If the couple is on the show, this will be the first time since (canceled) Real Housewives of DC featured Stacie and Jason Turner that city other than Atlanta had a black couple represented…and that a wife on the New Jersey cast doesn’t look like she could also be on Mob Wives.

What do you think? Are you a fan of RHONJ? Would you watch if they add DJ Envy and Gia?